Union says labour law exemption for Elections P.E.I. erodes workers' rights

The Union of Public Sector Employees is concerned about changes coming to P.E.I.'s labour laws.

Elections P.E.I. will soon be exempt from the requirement to offer some workers paid holidays, lunch breaks and a day off each week.

UPSE, which represents more than 5,000 public and private sector workers on the Island, says the labour law exemption sets a bad precedent and is unfair to workers. 

"Elections P.E.I. should be running a proper staffing complement to ensure that the minimum standards of the Employment Standards Act are followed rather than requesting a special exemption in legislation that erodes the rights of workers," said UPSE president Karen Jackson in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Elections P.E.I. says often staff hired for an election have to do some amount of work every day. And voting days are unpredictable with not enough staff to cover for people on breaks.

"On advanced and election day voting days, we cannot provide the guaranteed breaks. We do not know how busy it will be or when the down times will be," said Tim Garrity, P.E.I.'s chief electoral officer in an email statement to CBC News on Monday.

Jackson said she is disappointed that the province supported the amendment for Elections P.E.I.

"I understand where Elections P.E.I. is coming from; however, we are all in the same boat. There is a labour shortage and it's hard to fill positions, but that doesn't mean we should lessen an employer's obligation under the P.E.I. Employment Standards Act or take away workers' rights, that is just setting a bad precedent moving forward."     

In an emailed statement to CBC P.E.I. Monday, the province said Elections P.E.I. is run so differently from other workplaces, the exemptions couldn't be considered precedent-setting. 

The Department of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture said it's worried that if election workers have required breaks and insist on taking them, it could cause issues with the integrity of the election process.

It pointed to an example of a returning officer or deputy returning officer having to work more than seven days in a row. 

The province said, "This is unlikely to happen, as schedules are planned to provide a day off, but in the event of illness or an emergency, it may be necessary that an employee does not have a day of rest to ensure the integrity of the election process."

It also said that although election officials are exempt from the employment standards rest period provision, "Elections P.E.I. supplies food and shorter breaks to election officials on polling days."

Liam McHugh-Russell is an assistant professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.